Friday, April 30, 2010

Spanish cardinal calls Catholic teachers to be 'witnesses of evangelization'

The prefect for the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, Cardinal Antonio Canizares, remarked this week that amidst the moral crisis of society, Catholic schools must be revolutionary.

He also encouraged teachers to not only educate their students, “but also be consistent witnesses of evangelization.”

According to the AVAN news agency, the cardinal warned that “the world needs a decisive change, without which it has no future,” since there is widespread moral breakdown and man has forgotten God and lost “the meaning of life.”

“It is not possible to educate a society that allows abortion,” passes laws against the family or spreads on television “a vision of man that is totally contrary to the human person,” the cardinal continued. “Nor is it possible to educate a social system that is unjust, with the rich ever more rich and the poor ever more poor.”

Cardinal Canizares also said the exaggerated number of educational systems in the country make a united vision of Spain impossible.

After noting the failure of the educational system to respond to the demands of education, the cardinal addressed Catholic teachers and reminded them they should not only teach but also be consistent witnesses of evangelization.

Catholic schools must contribute to “the synthesis between faith and reason,” without forgetting that “at the center of the Christian concept of the Catholic school is Jesus Christ and his message of salvation.”